#cycle20ranking

1. Jourdan

Full portfolio call-out average: 4.45

My call-out average (until elimination): 3.64

Panel call-out average: 3.17

Jourdan was probably not who the show intended to win at first since they most likely wanted a male champion, but she gave them pretty much no other choice. She was definitely the most modelesque girl in the cast, with an adaptable blank canvas face and a fantastic 6′1″ frame that she carried surprisingly well. Her portfolio was consistently very strong almost right from the start, and she only had one major misstep (Animorphs). I may have only given her 2 FCOs, but she was almost always in the top half of my call-outs every week and never even landed in my bottom four. As a result she had the highest call-out averages in both categories by a relatively solid margin. The 6 FCOs she received from the panel were probably a bit excessive, but there’s no denying that she delivered quite a few sensational photographs, my favorites being her Trailer Park, Paint Splash, Nail Art, and Rice Paddy shots. I think that she showed a lot of variety week to week and definitely knew how to pose and find her angles. She also proved that she could excel in both commercial and high fashion modeling, and nearly always did a great job of selling her outfits/products. Jourdan was not the runway queen of the cycle like she seemed to think she was, but she still had one of the best walks, second only to Renee. While I was disappointed with her performance at go-sees, I still think that her walk could potentially book fashion shows. Jourdan was a force to be reckoned with for the duration of the competition, and she was the strongest overall contestant of the cycle for me. She excelled in basically every area, meaning that she was extremely well-rounded and a complete package. Jourdan was a very deserving winner and definitely had a natural talent for modeling.

As much as I adored Jourdan as a model, I wasn’t as big of a fan of her personality. I will cut her some slack on the “married at 18, divorced at 18″ thing since it was obviously just one or two soundbites reused multiple times throughout the cycle; I blame the editors on that one. However, even without that she was kind of annoying. She was overly dramatic at times and her general cluelessness about things such as goths made me facepalm pretty hard. I just couldn’t connect with her whatsoever. I did appreciate her determination and drive throughout the competition at least.

6. Jiana

Full portfolio call-out average: 6.36

My call-out average (until elimination): 4.8

Panel call-out average: 6.83

Cycle 20- Guys & Girls 1

My call-out orders for the twentieth cycle, including individual call-out averages for each model. 

2. Nina

Full portfolio call-out average: 4.91

My call-out average (until elimination): 4.56

Panel call-out average: 4.5

Nina was one of the obvious frontrunners of Cycle 20 and I’m still flabbergasted by how she finished in 7th place. At the beginning of the competition I was worried that she would be another girl with oodles of potential but minimal skill since she started off with a couple of rough pictures. However, she rapidly improved and the rest of her portfolio was quite excellent (minus her final GUESS ad). I gave her 3 consecutive FCOs, which is more than I gave anyone else when judging everyone’s photos. Her Fields of Fashion and Flawsome shots were some of my favorites of the cycle, plus her Trailer Park, Animorphs, Paint Splash, and Bat photos were all stellar as well. Her unique beauty just translated perfectly onto film and she had all of her angles down to flatter her bone structure. Her portfolio was easily one of the best of the cycle, right on par with Jourdan. I will say that she was mostly suited for high fashion and I wasn’t fully convinced that she could do commercial modeling nearly as successfully. Nina’s runway walk left a bit to be desired though. Sometimes her walk seemed quirky in a good way, while other times she looked super unstable, like she was losing her balance due to attempting to werk it too much. With some coaching she definitely had strong runway potential. Nina’s too early elimination floored me because I thought she was on track to make the Final 3. As I stated in her photo review during the week she was cut, the way the scoring system doesn’t take previous performances into account is so unfair to people like Nina who are sent home after a single off week. She was the most robbed contestant of the cycle, and the strength of her body of work should have kept her in the running much longer. 

Nina was absolutely adorable and probably the nicest member of the Cycle 20 cast. She could definitely be super funny at times too; I will never not laugh at her not realizing where the camera was in the Fields of Fashion shoot before saying “Oh fuck!” and immediately getting back into character. I do think that she focused on others way too much though, especially Chris H. That whole situation seemed so uncomfortable and she should’ve let it go sooner. Her naturally caring demeanor and how she tried to see the good in everyone showed that she was a genuinely kind person, but I just wish she had kept her head in the game a tiny bit more.

4. Renee

Full portfolio call-out average: 6.27

My call-out average (until elimination): 5.3

Panel call-out average: 5.55

Even though Renee had one of my favorite looks in the cast, I was initially worried that she would have an early exit based on her pageant background, lack of height, and somewhat rough start (photo-wise). That or she’d be a repeat of Kiara, letting her challenge scores carry her despite having merely satisfactory pictures. Thankfully after the first three photoshoots she had her own renaissance (Renee-sance?) and improved greatly. Her Paint Splash and Rice Paddy shots were among my favorites of the cycle. However, even with her improvement I don’t find many of her other shots to be very memorable or outstanding. She had the tendency to lack focus in her eyes during shoots which ended up dragging several of her photos down. Her drastic decline in the last two photoshoots of cycle kind of put a damper on her portfolio as well. I think she was a good photo model overall, just not a great one. The area where Renee dominated was on the runway and no one else really even came close to her. She walked with so much attitude and fierceness without looking over-the-top. She just commanded every moment she was on a runway. Her fabulous walk alone was nearly enough to place her in my Top 3, but when I look at her total performance throughout the competition she comes up a little short. I still would’ve been elated if she had advanced to the finale, and if she had a couple more photos at the level of her aforementioned standouts she would’ve easily cracked my Top 3. Renee was definitely one of the strongest competitors and I was so proud of her for her amazing progress!

5. Cory

Full portfolio call-out average: 5.45

My call-out average (until elimination): 4.55

Panel call-out average: 4.25

I really struggled with where to place Cory (I had him in every spot from 2-6 when finalizing this ranking). I settled on the lower end of that spectrum because I don’t think he had a very memorable portfolio. He delivered some spectacular performances in the Nail Art and Rice Paddy photoshoots. However, outside of those weeks none of his photos really stand out to me, which is a shame because I had assumed that his unique look would result in more creative pictures week to week. I will say that he was extremely consistent; he never even landed in my bottom 3 and usually hung around in the upper half of most of my call-outs. I really liked Cory’s look, especially his strong bone structure, but I wasn’t sold on the bald makeover; the shaved look before they took a razor to his head was awesome though and I wish they had stopped at that point. As for the whole thing with Rob Evans, I really admired how Cory handled most of Rob’s harsh critiques and often overly low scores. However, as much as I hate to admit it, Rob was kind of right in that Cory needed to learn how to be masculine in photos in order to fit a brand and appeal to a mainstream audience when the brief called for it. He did show that he could be masculine in some of his shots, but I don’t think it was ever 100% convincing since I could always tell that he was actively trying to bring it forth. His walk was also in the same boat in that I could tell that it was a conscious effort for him to be masculine on the runway, which resulted in a stiff walk. I was happy to see Cory advance to the finale since he was one of the most consistent contestants, but when looking back at his whole body of work I think he falls a bit lower than his original placement.

7. Chris H.

Full portfolio call-out average: 7

My call-out average (until elimination): 5.3

Panel call-out average: 4.64

Most likely an unpopular opinion, but I don’t think Chris is nearly as strong as the judges/fans make him out to be. He had quite a few great photos, but almost as many absolutely disastrous ones. His journey on the show can be separated into two halves. In the first six weeks, all of his photos were good to excellent, minus his sock puppet nail art fiasco. However, from the Flawsome photoshoot until the end, all of his photos were honestly terrible, besides the last glimmer of hope in the form of his stunning Rice Paddy photo. By my math, that comes out to 6 good/great photos and 5 bad/mediocre photos; not exactly a fantastic track record. What Chris did have was massive amounts of potential. I was never all that taken with his in-person appearance, especially after that cheap looking chicken yellow hair makeover. However, on film he was arguably the most modelesque male contestant in the cast on the occasions when he did nail his shots. His walk wasn’t too shabby either. I think the biggest thing Chris needed to improve on was his knowledge of his facial angles: sometimes his bone structure would be incredible and other times it was nonexistent. The main reason I have Chris ranked this low is that the contestants above him were more consistent/had at least as many successes as him without having as many failures. I completely understand why he made it the Final 5, but I personally would’ve cut him a bit earlier. 

8. Don

Full portfolio call-out average: 7

My call-out average (until elimination): 5.75

Panel call-out average: 5.44